The authors study how internal and downstream integration and their interaction affect logistical and financial performance within the firm. The results indicate that internal and downstream integration and their interaction affect logistical performance — that is, the higher the internal integration, the stronger the relationship of downstream integration with logistical performance. The results also suggest that logistical performance directly predicts financial performance. The results suggest that superior performance derives from the firm simultaneously integrating functions, decision‐making, and processes both within the firm and across the supply chain.

Supply chain process variability is the level of inconsistency, or volatility, in the flow of goods into, through, and out of a firm. The research investigates the links among organizational structure (formalization and integration), supply chain process variability, and performance as moderated by environmental uncertainty. We found that in a predictable demand environment, only formal control affects supply chain process variability, leading to improved financial results; but in an unpredictable demand environment, only cross-functional integration affects supply chain process variability, leading to improved financial performance. We also examined whether supply chain process variability is a complete or partial mediator of the relationship between organizational structure and performance, and found that: (1) in a predictable demand environment, supply chain process variability completely mediates the relationship between formal control and performance and (2) in an unpredictable demand environment, supply chain process variability partially mediates the relationship between integration and performance. Supply chain process variability has an inverse relationship with financial performance, regardless of the demand environment; and organizational structure provides managers with the mechanisms to mitigate this variability's detrimental impact on financial performance. #

This study develops a model grounded in the contingency theory (i.e., context-structureperformance) applicable to Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Using data from a sample of 205 industrial SOEs, the study shows that SOE growth performance relative to the industry is positively predicted by formal control, inversely predicted by decentralization, and positively predicted by the interaction of the two. Customer product knowledge utilization, unrelated to growth performance relative to the industry, is positively predicted by formal control and the interaction of formal control with decentralization. Foreign induced industry competitiveness, technological turbulence, size, and production technology routineness are treated as context variables and modeled accordingly.

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Faced with environmental volatility and increased competition, firms are turning to supply chain management and associated time‐based initiatives to develop sustainable competitive advantages. This research examines just‐in‐time (JIT) as one such logistics strategy. While prior research has focused on internal and upstream JIT (i.e., production and purchasing), the present research examines the extent to which exchange with downstream customers is just‐in‐time oriented. The results of the research show that JIT with customers is associated with organizational designs that are more decentralized, integrated, and formalized and with better performance in terms of less finished goods inventory and higher overall financial performance. The analysis controls for firm size, production technology, and tenure of the senior logistics executive and shows that the effects of JIT with customers on organizational structure and performance are, with a limited number of exceptions, relatively robust.

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The authors test a model of the relationships among environmental uncertainty, just-in-time (JIT) selling, and dimensions of organizational structure. The results show that uncertainty is antecedent to JIT selling and that JIT selling predicts performance control, specialization, and scheduling decentralization. JIT selling is unrelated to face-to face integration and operations decentralization.

This research examines the links among four firm context variables, knowledge, and financial performance. Adopting a knowledge-based, contingency view of the firm and assuming that strategy's locus is knowledge creation and application, we hypothesize that knowledge completely mediates the effects of context on performance. The results from analyzing 208 manufacturers found a positive relationship between applied knowledge and financial performance, but none between knowledge creation and performance. As for context, production technology routineness and low demand unpredictability were positively related only to greater applied knowledge; high technological turbulence was positively related to both knowledge creation and knowledge application; and firm size had no effect on either knowledge construct. No direct context-performance relationships were found (i.e., all effects were indirect): knowledge, in particular applied knowledge, completely mediated the impact of context on performance.